Thursday, June 23, 2011

Giving You the Boot(s) - A Giveaway!

Many of you may remember that this print was inspired by my daughter's amazing nature preschool, and it was my entry for Spoonflower's Project Selvage contest. Since then, I've made the scale of the print significantly smaller, moved the boots a bit closer together, and tweaked the colors, especially the blue. I'm really happy with this final version.

So, want some Rain Boots fabric of your own? I hope you do, because I'm giving some away! Just leave a comment on this post with your favorite memory involving nature. Four different winners will each get a fat quarter of my Rain Boots fabric. I'll choose two winners at random, and two winners whose comments I love. Just leave your comment by Sunday, June 26. I'll announce the winners on Monday morning.

If you don't happen to win, never fear—my Rain Boots fabric is now for sale through Spoonflower! Click here for buying options. And if you're part of the awesome Spoonflower Swap with Gen X Quilters, you'll be getting a few squares of this from me via the swap. Enjoy!

169 comments:

I absolutely love this pattern. Well done!! My favorite memory is exploring my grandfather's old creek bed on the farm. It was filled with flat limestone for jumping to and fro. I felt like I was really being adventurous. I loved the gentle water sounds of the slow moving current, the dragon flies that buzzed with their brightly colored bodies. There were skinny ones and fat ones. I loved the sun shining down and making me hot while my feet were cool in the creek bed. Goodness. The memories are flooding back. What a sweet gift. Thank you!!

I couple of months ago I took a walk on the path in the woods behind my local library. It had just rained that there were mushrooms everywhere! I'd never seen such variety of type and color. It was amazing; there must have been 50 different types of mushrooms and dozens of each. I've walked there since then and I have yet to see another mushroom.

I remember the rain in summer and splashing through the ford in the creek looking for tadpoles with my sister. We didn't have the luxury of rubber boots though. The water was cold but the sun was warm. :)

I don't have necessarily one favorite memory to talk about. My husband and I like to hike, and one of my favorite feelings is standing on top of a mountain and seeing everything for miles around. It's so quiet and peaceful and comes with a great sense of accomplishment!

I really like how that turned out. My favorite nature memory has to be when I was about 10. The ONLY time my family went camping. My sisters (about 8 & 6) and I went for a walk on a trail. When we tried to get back it seemed to be taking a while longer than when we went in. Then we started to notice that we kept passing the same Burger King cup that was discarded on the side of the trail. After noticing this a few times we decided it was time to stop and stay in one place (just like our parents taught us). Less than 10 minutes later (which seemed like 5 days to us) here walks my dad. He didn't know we were lost, but we were never so happy to see him as that moment!!!

I love the fabric it is so cute. My favorite outdoor memories I love the first sunny day of the season where i can lay on the hammock and here the begin sounds, smells and feels of summer. A lawn mower in the distant, smell the long green grass that needs to be cut, and felling the sun on my skin as it warms my skin and my spirits.

These boots remind me of my pretty white and pink raincoat I had when I was 7. I used to hope it would rain so I could wear my raincoat to school. It was reversible so one side was pink and the other side was white with tiny little different colored hearts. I still remember splashing in the puddles on the way home from the bus and my mom being worried because it took me so long to get home. Thanks for helping me remember that! LOVE the fabric!

every labor day weekend, my entire extended family would head far up north wisconsin, and all stay in one giant cabin on a gorgeous private lake. i haven't been there in almost twenty years, but i could still tell you exactly what the lake smelled like, the way the giant pines were reflected in the water, the sound of the loons in the morning, exactly where the bald eagle's nest was located.... and how many fish i caught each year!

Love your adorable fabric! My fav memory from nature is visting Big Bear every summer (we are going again in a week!)and kayaking in the lake with my kids~ having races to see who gets to the next stop on the lake first. :)

Your fabric is just GREAT! I just laugh every time I look at the little frog....this so actually could have happened when my sons were young!My fondest nature memory was when my parents used to take me to a cabin in the woods in New hampshire. We hardly ever took vacations so just going somewhere was special. My dad and I would go in the row boat in the evenings and he taught me to fish from the dock with this green fishing line that wound around this yellow sq of wood. The fish we caught were not fit to eat so we always threw them back but first we would name them after the people we thought they looked like. In the mornings we would take bowls of cereal outside and pick blueberies and put them right on the cereal before we put the milk on it. I don't have many enjoyable childhood memories but this one is very dear to me the few times we went to that cabin will always be in my heart.

No freakin way! Yay for Lee!My favorite nature memory is camping as a 12 year old at Tinney Flats with a bunch of other girls my age. We just hung out, played in the stream, hiked and ate yummy dutch oven food all weekend.

We make an annual trip to a state park in the mountains for New Years to spend time with hubbie's family. I'm always amazed at the splendor of God's creations when we stand beneath the waterfalls there, or when we take a leisurely walk around the lake. Several years ago a hurricane wiped out trees throughout, so it has been a lesson in life to watch each year as new plants and trees are born to bring it back to its original glory.

Walking through a path to the sea in Rhode Island. Especially at dusk when the fireflies were out. The path was filled with wild roses and you had to climb a hill before you saw the ocean. The smell was unlike anything else in the world and it was totally my happy place.

I DO want some rain boots fabric of my own! I almost joined the Gen X swap for the sole purpose of getting my hands on some, but I missed out.

My nature memory: My sister and I went for a hike with our parents at a state park near our house, and we got horribly lost. We wandered around that place for I think close to 5 hours trying to get back to our car. My sister and I (we were probably about 5 and 7 at the time) were hysterical, of course, and we were convinced that there would be rescue helicopters trying to rescue us. Of course, we found our way out, and we were hungry and tired but otherwise okay. Perhaps that's why I'm happier inside, happily behind my sewing machine! :)

My grandparents, back in the 50's, owned a guest house! My memory relates to the small pine forest on the grounds where I would play! i can still feel the softness of the layers of pine needles under my feet and smell their fresh pine scent. The trees also silenced the outside world! What a haven that was!

Ooh, I *love* your fabric!! I would love to get my hands on some :) One of my favorite nature memories started out somewhat as a nature catastrophe-- when I was a little kid (probably 3 or 4 years old) we were at the metroparks, enjoying the beauty of the pond where we were feeding the geese. Things turned south fast, though, when more and more geese realized I was holding a baggie of bread scraps, and all became aggressive and decided to attack me! My dad ran in and scooped me up and held me high as we ran for safety. To this day I'm a little afraid of geese (they actually will hiss at you!!). But, I still love going to the park, and it's great to know your dad has your back :) Spending time outdoors is one of my favorite things, despite the dangers I may face!

Back in 2008, I had the opportunity to accompany my husband on a business trip to Japan. He worked, I travelled. It was brilliant! Anyway, my favourite nature moment would probably be having green tea in a bamboo forest. Everything was so peaceful, it was magical!

Great fabric, I would love to add that to my stash! My favorite nature memory: every fall, we would collect chestnuts in the woods. My brother and I then always made some animals out of the chestnuts and some matches. That kept us busy for hours, crafting and playing with them!

Great fabric! My favorite memory would have to be when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. On rainy days my Mother would make sure I wore my yellow rain slicker and rain boots. Somehow on the walk to and from school I would manage to find each and every puddle there was and jump in them. I guess this is why she made sure I had on that slicker and those boots. I sure do love that memory:)

Your fabric is so cute....it defintely tugs at my heartstrings. My daughter is a lover of all things frogs...even has rainboots with frogs on them to go frog-catching with. Even if I don't win, I will need to pick some up for her "frog" quilt I am making for her.

I have 3 daughters and I used to say things like "The weatherman says it looks like, rain, snow, sun," what ever the forecast was to make them wear their coats, mittens, etc. One day one of my girls asked me "Does the weatherman live with Santa?" They thought he was some kind of mythical person. I love telling this story about them....The one asking that question is the one that LOVES rain boots like your fabric!!lpnjam@aol.com

Totally loving the boots!One of my favorite weather memories was the summer I taught horseback riding at a summer camp up in Maine. We'd get summer storms out of absolutely nowhere and they'd flood the area outside the barn. Most of the time, everyone just huddled inside and acted grumpy, but one of the days, we got tired of being stuck inside, so we turned up the radio and went out riding in the rain anyhow. Even the horses had a blast - they were stomping in the puddles. :)

I do love this fabric. My favorite memory happened at our cabin in Island Park, Idaho when I was a teen. We were staying there one weekend, and I woke up about 5 am to take pictures one summer morning. I just had a cheapy point and shoot, but I got some fun pictures of a spiderweb covered in dew. Then I walked down to the lake which was completely still. The morning haze was just burning off and the sun was rising over the trees. It's just such a peaceful memory for me. It was a beautiful, silent morning. I wish I had the chance to do that more often.

I love this fabric! My family is a biology family so I have many fond "nature" memories. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the times I spent with my dad walking through a local forest preserve stopping to identify and record every wildflower in my journal.

Boots... AND FROGS!!! :DMy favorite nature memory... I have a bunch. I grew up in a (temperate) rain forest, in a little tiny town... I think my absolute favorite thing to see is watching the rain come up across the ocean and onto the beach.And after that, finding a tree frog in my apartment complex. :D

Darling! I think my favorite nature moment from childhood was going for walks with my family in deary Seattle fall & bringing home different leaves to make leaf prints - top a leaf with drawing paper & color away. I loved doing that as a child and also as a parent with my own children!

My favorite nature memory comes from being a Girl Scout as a kid. I went to day camp every year and we had these sticker-decorated 5 gallon buckets we hauled everywhere with our lunches, crafts, etc. We hauled them up, we hauled them down, we sat on them while we literally sang Kumbaya around the campfire. We were covered from head to toe in OFF bug spray, sloshy wet socks from creek hiking, dirt under your fingernails from digging and planting in the woods and suntanned from playing tag in the fields.

It was the perfect picture of what it was like to be a carefree kid on those sunny summer days. What I wouldn't give to feel that way again!

Probably getting caught in a freak snowstorm in the Sierras while backpacking. Hiking out with no visibility and our two dogs leading the way- with icicles hanging fromt heir chins. and I was a few months pregnant!

Love, love, love the fabric! There are tones and tons of memorable nature moments from a kid to now, but I'll do one that is appropriate for this fabric. These boots remind me of the pair I had as a child. I wore them EVERYWHERE. We lived in a small cabin in Alaska right up from the Tanana River. My siblings and I widdled our days away playing in that river. It was right after a heavy rain that I got stuck in the mud and kept sinking. My older brother was trying to pull me back out. But the only way to get me out, was to lose my glorious rubber boots. :(

My favorite memory of nature was from a famiy trip to Lake Powell when I was about 13. There was a huge thunderstorm during the night, and we all laid outside the tents to watch these huge thunderbolts. It was incredible! Some were so huge that they lit up the whole sky, and for a few seconds the late night looked like midday. It was unforgetable, and really showed me for the first time just how powerful nature is. It was beautiful, terrifying, and just plain awesome!

I have so many terrific nature memories, but there are two that stand out. First, my daddy was a hobby farmer and we had goats. I loved seeing the newly born goats and watching the mother care for them.I also remember finding what we called the "polliwog pond". We spent hour upon hour there catching tadpoles and watching the new frogs. It was awesome! Thanks for bringing back these fond memories!I love your boot fabric! It is so cute!

Apparently when I was a toddler my mom took me to a friend's house/farm to see some baby sheep. I was so in love with them I wrapped my arm around the lamb's next and would not stop cuddling it. My mom had to pull me away saying "ok honey, let go, the sheepie needs to breath too" :) While I don't remember this, I do have a strange obsession with sheep, which is def. explained by that story... which was told to me just a few years ago, 20+ years into my sheep obsession ;-)

Lovely fabric! I was lucky enough to grow up on 4 wooded acres in Ohio, and there was a stream on our property. It's hard to choose a favorite nature memory - picking blackberries, watching the squirrels chase each other from tree to tree, swinging on a wild grape vine, avoiding poison ivy and garter snakes, sitting on the root of a huge wild cherry tree that crossed the stream like a little bridge. Those are some!

Oh memories Lee....lol. This may not be my favorite; but is very very memorable for me. I went partridge hunting with my second son...he was under age to hunt alone...lucky me,eh..lol.I always did this. We met face to face with a black bear; I though I would die right there on that spot!!! The bear came out of an apple tree and dissappeared; I was afraid it would sneak up behind us; so we walked back to back out of the wooded area. I think we scared it as much as it scared us; never saw it again. But when I hit the dirt road again; my knees turned to jelly; that was the end of hunting for me; he had to wait until he was older....

LOL..forgot. I do love the outdoors though...I do all of the gardening, lawns..painting...splitting wood...love nature...and we have about 2000 goldfish in our pond...so much nature..lol thanks for this chance...I'll stop talking now...haha

Love the boots! One of my favorite nature memories is from back when I was pretty young. Our neighbors had a beautiful maple tree and every year those wonderful "propellers" would let loose. My brothers and I loved trying to catch them before they hit the ground! {grin}

Your rainboots are adorable!When I was a teenager I hiked the Grand Canyon with three girlfriends. It was beautiful, it pushed me beyond what I thought I could do, and my affection for those friends grew immensely!

One of my favorite "nature" experiences this spring was telling my son (just turned 4 last week) about rain and frogs. We put on our crocks and ran through the mud puddles in the driveway. What a fun day. I even blogged about it here http://new2quilting.blogspot.com/2011/04/supernova-quilt-top-complete.htmlIronic that it is also a post about my Supernova.Then we found a toad. Cute day making memories with my son.

I love the fabric! So fun! My favorite memory is being in Northern Ontario at Junior Ranger camp. We sat on the dock for hours at night watching the glorious northern lights. They were so vivid! They we'd run back to the cabins as fast as we could to avoid the bats. :)

I remember trips to grandma's house and if I was very lucky a trip to the woods. There was a fen out in the back edge of the woods, it seemed like another world to me. Shallow pools and also boggy areas with unique plants and animals... salamanders, snails, dragonflies, all manner of frogs, jack-in-the-pulpits, ferns, trillium and many other "exotic" plants... at least they were to me, a big city child. In my child's mind, I had left my world and gone back to the days of the dinosaurs... huge shading trees, ferns and verdant plant life with that over-powering humid sensation that goes straight to your very core. The air would be filled with chiding squirrels, hard-working woodpeckers, boisterous blue-jays and those weird looking cranes that stood on one leg motionless for it seemed forever then would shriek and take flight. This was the most wild and untamed place, as a child, I had ever been and I so loved being able to visit it.

I adore This pattern!!! It reminds me of a time when I was in my teens. I was ridding my draft horse in the woods of northern Arizona ( where I grew up) and we just happened to come across a small pond right after a light rain that morning. There were little frogs croaking and singing because of the rain fall. I remember being so intranced with the little creatures because they were so rRe in the area. My horse , Kate, seemed to think they were green deamons or something because she reacted like they were as giant as she was. As much as I wished to stay and study the frogs, I couldn't get Kate to stay :( thank you for sharing your beautiful creations with us!

As I said back when you entered it into the contest--I love your print and it should have won ;)I hope you are designing a whole collection in your spare time! I could see frogs and raindrops and bright zig zags.....anyway, I am off track here--I would love to win a bit of it and use it in my next I-Spy quilt!Carin

oops! I forgot my favorite memory--well, I love to hike with my kids and husband and take pictures of God's amazing creation--and we are camping this summer for 2.5 weeks in northern Michigan and the upper pennisulla of MI--I hope we have a wonderful time!

I grew up on 165 acres of farmland/woodland in upstate New York. In the summer, my brothers and I lived outside from the moment we finished breakfast until my mom called us in for dinner. We went on adventures in the woods, played in the stream, swam in the pond...the ideas were endless and the land called to us, even as kids. It was lovely.

Your rain boots fabric is absolutely adorable!! My favorite nature memory is probably getting to play with a friend who had a creek running behind her house. We used to walk in the creek and get all muddy and just have a lot of fun. Then of course, came getting hosed off in the yard before we were allowed back in the house :) Thanks for the giveaway!!

When I was a child my Mom was the Girl Scouts Brownie leader when meant she was my leader since I was in Brownies. She also moved to Girl Scout leader when I was older and in that group. Each Spring since my Mom was also the founder of the local Garden Club in town, she would take the Brownies and then later, the Girl Scouts to our local Forest Preserve. There we would walk through the forest looking at all the greenery growing there and the flowers as she pointed each type out to us. She would teach us about each species growning that we found so we could learn more about nature. We always had a blast doing that. Also, for our community badges and involvement, each Spring the Garden Club had "Petunia Day" where the members had sold tickets to everyone practically in town and one Saturday morning each year thousands of flats of Petunias in every color of the rainbow were delivered to the city park. This was part of our work for the community and helping the Garden Club. We would be there bright and early when the Petunias were delivered so we could help sort them by color all around over half of the park and when people came to pick theirs up, we were there to help them carry their flowers back to their cars.Once all the Petunias had been picked up we then all walked downtown. Downtown was strict on their storefronts and still are to the day so they each had to be an old fashioned look to them along with flower boxes on each storefront. We would spend the rest of the day planting Petunias in each of those flower boxes lining the downtown street until they were all done. The Garden Club donated all those to the city each year and once planted, the downtown street was just beautiful with all the colors.

My Mom is now gone but, the Garden Club is still there and still has their Petunia Day each year. I always think of my Mom when I see they are having Petunia Day and all the hard work we did every single year when I was younger.

Hi Lee,I love your fabric! Is toadally beautiful :)We are lucky too that my son goes to a Green School in Fl. They really get the kids into nature.Just recently they had the kids digging for worms and were allowed to take them home in a paper cup (no styrofoam for sure )He was so happy to bring them home and created a little home for them in a flower pot. He kept checking on them and putting banana peels for them to eat.He really has learn to love natureMarta

What cute fabric, very creative! My favorite nature memory was going mushroom hunting with my mom in the Spring. She wasn't very good at directions and I got her to cross the same creek 5 times before she realized I was just taking her in circles. I sure miss her. Thanks for a great giveaway.

What a great print you have come up with. I would love to have some of it. Thanks for sharing. My favorite memory from nature is the time I went camping as a young child near San Antonio, Texas. We spent the days along the river playing and at night listening to all the creatures.

Your fabric is fabulous, I think it was a great idea to scale the print down. My favorite nature memory is when we first moved here to Georgia 13 years ago, my son was 5 so we did lots of really fun things to get to know the area. Two of them still stand out to me. The Butterfly release at the Nature Center (they still do it yearly). I was as much in awe as my son. The 2nd one is taking him on a picnic at a creek area that has lots of super huge rocks to sit on while you're playing in the water. We had such a blast eating cheese doodles and wading around. Sometimes I really miss those younger days of his.

Your fabric is lovely! I remember one spring break I went to see my brother who was going to college in Boulder CO - we went hiking, in the rain, in the Rockies. Cold and tired we stopped to rest and looked below - big horned sheep! they were so lovely - they are very quiet peaceful animals and usually you never get to see them while hiking they are very shy - I will never forget standing in the rain watching them.

My favorite nature memories are from my years as a camp counselor-- holding classes outside, keeping plenty of rain gear around for kids who didn't bring any, picnics with daycampers, treks through the woods, bike rides on the bike paths... every summer, it's all I can think about!

I love this fabric. My favorite memory involving nature is going on walks with my grandma looking for Mayflowers. She ALWAYS knew where to look. She was so patient with me and showed me how to tell the Mayflower leaves.

I love, love, love, the way your fabric turned out! My favorite memory about nature is summers spent lying in the grass watching the Oklahoma clouds paint shapes across the sky and listening to the cicades sing.

Love the fabric!! Rain boots are just too sweet aren't they?! My favourite memory in nature, "camping" in our backyard all summer with my friends... We always snuck out so we were very adventurous! lol! Mind you, times were different 20+ years ago...

Actually, my favorite nature memory is a family vacation gone bad. We went camping for the weekend and got caught in some huge storms. My tent flooded. The rain stopped and we hung everything out to dry only to have it storm again. We gave up - threw all of the wet stuff in the back of the car and drove home. We later found out we were the brilliant family that camped during the storm aftermath of Hurricane Bob. :) Good times.

When I think of nature, I immediately think of my dad. He is the person that taught me to love and respect nature and now I have the chance to pass that on to my children. Since my dad passed before my children ever had a chance to know him, this is also a way for me to share their "Papaw" with them. :) We enjoy hiking and all the critters in the neighborhood...raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, deer, frogs, field mice, turtles....that find their way into our yard.

Hmmm...favorite nature memory? Unfortunately I have more bad memories that stand out than good ones. The big ones are all camping related - once I fell out of a friends tent-trailer at 5:00 or so in the morning. I was yelling for help as I was falling & when she saw I wasn't there, she assumed I went to the outhouse - with my pillow & sleeping bag!

Another time we followed the signs to what we thought was the family campground, only to be woken up at 1:00 in the morning to a full riot, a group of guys were fighting & fell on our tent - on top of my brother, sister, and I! We also heard people cutting down trees with chainsaws not far from where we had our tent. So we packed up the tent, threw the air mattress on the roof of the station wagon, and my step-mom stood on the back bumper to hold the air mattress while we moved to a new campsite.

Sadly, there's more where those came from! Let's just say I've never had the best luck while camping. ;)

I grew up in rural Alaska and I remember the many summer days when we striped down to our skivvies and played in the mud flats created by the mountain runoff in the creeks. All the neighborhood kids (all 5 of us... lol) would spend 4-6 hours there almost daily playing pirates or monsters and go home covered in so much mud that our parents would greet us with the water hose. So much fun! I hope my kids create such wonderful memories living here in Colorado.

My favorite memory involves my daughter. She was about 18 months old when we discovered a tiny flock of ladybugs in our front lawn. I gently picked one up to show to her and she burst into tears when I held it up for her to see (she was - and still is - a very sensitive child). We went back outside the next day and she headed straight to the grass to look for ladybugs. I found one and held it up to her. This time, she didn't cry. She simply looked from afar and babbled to me. We came back outside every morning for the next few days, and each time she edged closer and closer until she let me put one on her sleeve. She was delighted! She was so excited that she even came up with her own sign for ladybugs to help her communicate with me (she didn't have a lot of words at that point). Looking for ladybugs became one of her favorite activities in the next year or so, and I still have fond memories of her growing into her love of those little spotty red bugs. :)

I loved this print! My favorite memory is my first trip to the NC mountains with my husbands family. I was 16, we had been dating a year and all I had ever heard about was the family week in the mountains. I felt so honored to be in invited and loved every minute of it. Lots of hiking (my first!), rock sliding (another first!) and playing in giant waterfalls. It was heaven. It was my first, of many, NC trips. :)

So cute! One of my fav nature memories as a little kid is slurping water out of the holes in our driveway after a spring rain. It totally was the 70s. Can you imagine doing that these days? The horror! LOL

One of my favorite outdoor memories was a Snow Day back in the 80's...schools, businesses and roads were closed, and we lived on a small bay. It was snowy but mild, so all the neighbors headed outside, the Dads pulled out the snowblowers and plowed our street, making HUGE snowbanks that us kids all slid down on our bums. One of the dads had a big truck and he drove and found an open donut shop, so we all had a winter picnic with donuts and hot chocolate on the quiet street, in the middle of the workweek- heaven!

My favorite outside memory is from my childhood, around 10 or 11, in Oklahoma. The parents took all us kids to Red Rock State Park for the weekend. We hiked and camped and played in the RED clay dust/dirt until we were all filthy. I think we had to throw those clothes away because my mother couldn't get the red out of them.

When I was a kid I loved to climb trees, the higher the better. I would always find myself a nice perch way up so that I could survey everything below. I loved that feeling of being up above the world. Getting down, now that was the tricky part. :)

What a great design Lee!A few years after I survived major breast cancer, I signed up for Outward Bound to help me regain my self confidence. I spent seven days in the Boundary Waters with nine other women cancer survivors I had never met before. Nature is such a healer. We spent the time canoeing, navigating, rappelling, soloing, cooking and fishing. Nature and all of those women became my friends. I think I can say that is the reason I am a twenty-four year survivor.

I have a lot of great nature memories...digging potatoes from the garden as a kid, bike riding on the bike trails with my brother (I always had to be in front), spending time at the lake with my husband when we were first married... I will have to say though, my favorite nature memories are the ones I'm making with my children. I have four under age 6 and everything is so new to them. Watching their little faces light up in awe examining a turtle they found is just so much fun!

My favorite memory has to be the first time I visited Muir Woods in CA. I had never seen a redwood tree before, it was incredibly awesome. That same trip I put my foot in the Pacific Ocean for the very first time (I grew up on the East coast, so this was very exciting to me!)

Our Mother was always very good at spotting opportunities to expand our knowledge. One day she rounded us up and took us to the pumpkin patch to watch the pumpkins grow. Yes, it’s true. The pumpkins were at that very fast growing stage. She sat us down with a small stick each and twisted to little curling frond at the end of a pumpkin stalk around the stick. We sat quietly and watched the pumpkin continue to grow and twist around the stick. True I kid you not.

I have never owned rain boots, nor have my children, we live in CA and they just aren't needed much here......but, they're so cute I've been tempted on many occasion to pick some up!

My favorite nature memory is the many times I've been a youth counselor for summer church camp. It's so wonderful to leave asphalt and city behind and just enjoy being among the trees, mountain trails and fresh air.

I love everything about this fabric. My favorite nature memory was the last time I went Girl Scout camping... maybe six years ago. We were in platform tents far away from everyone else ("Trail's End") and it was definitely adventurous. Almost as soon as we got there it started to downpour, so we jumped in our tents. I haven't seen such a downpour since! It was so much fun. And every time we walked to Trail's End we got to see the lake, and all the trees and crazy plants - only because we were so far. Thanks for the chance to win!

One of my fav memories is of a huge mulberry tree at the edge of the woods. There was a small footpath through the underbrush that lead to a clearing just under the mulberry tree, our clubhouse. Daddy hung a tire swing and helped nail boards to the side for us to climb easier. You could not see anything from the outside, just the woods. So it was like our secret place. We spent so much time there, my brother, sister and I, esp in the summer. It was a wonderful place. I wonder sometimes if its still there. If its been found by other kids and is still a happy place, a happy tree.

Hm. How about the Blue Mountains on a summer's day about 12 years ago?

Azure sky arching over the tumbled reddish-orange rocks that we scrambled over along the bushwalk down to the river. Gum trees dappling the sunlight over us while the cicadas craaked their little hearts out and the myna birds called to each other in the treetops. A nice flat rock by the glittering river, and the best-tasting ham-and-cheese sandwich ever!

My favorite nature related memory is when I was a kid camping, my mom and her friend went out for a walk, and while they were gone it started to pour (complete with thunder and lightning) when they got back to the tent, we were all cozy with cups of hot apple cider and they looked like two drowned rats. To this day we all still laugh about this memory because my mom has always said that she loves a good lightning storm!

My favorite nature memory is from just a few years ago. We had a young deer wander into our yard while I was gardening. She wasn't afraid of us; followed us around the yard nibbling on my roses and hostas, and at one point, trying to eat my tshirt! She eventually got bored and we pointed her back into the woods.

Wow, what a great question. I have so many that picking one will be hard but I'd have to say spending time at my grandparent's farm. They had goats, geese, chickens, dogs, and cats and all other kinds of animals. We spent a lot of time there, and we were allowed to run the pastures and play in the creek. I love nature and I love to explore and I think it is all because of that wonderful little farm, and I love goats!

A mild November afternoon - gorgeous cerulean sky spread overhead - enjoying the breeze as Molly and I lope casually along a path through a cornfield on a Maryland farm with no buildings or people in sight - only corn, hay fields, and woods - suddenly an 8 point deer breaks out of the wall of corn to lope alongside us, a mere yard away, for about 100 yards before silently veering away as we emerge from the cornfield - Molly never alters a stride, though I can tell by her flickering ears that she is consumed with curiosity about this strange creature that has joined our sojourn for a moment in time (A special gift of serenity in nature during a vacation trip north with the horse we used to have. It has been at least ten years, but I remember the moment like it happened just today.)

I want it! Still shocked you didn't make it to the next level in project selvage. Maybe if you'd made these mods before hand? Anyways, there's only a few that I'm still pulling for for a novel and whimsical line.

I grew up in tropical North Queensland - Australia, so for me, my best nature memories are stomping in the puddles and having a rainshower during summer rain storms where the rain is warm. Then running inside screaming when the thunder and lightening starts rolling in. I now live down South (where the rain is cold) and will always miss the feeling of warm rain.

When I was a a little kid, my granddad caught a little 6 or 7 inch green garden snake and gave it for me to take to show and tell. (Aside: do you think kids can even take live animals to public schools for show and tell anymore?). Anyway, I was super proud of it-- it was in a clear plastic box (with vents of course) and I showed it to any and everyone. But one night I went to admire my snake and it was no longer in it's house. I totally freaked. Now the snake wasn't a pet. It was WILD and thus SCARY. With my parents' help, I eventually found the snake, learned that I didn't have to be afraid of it in a plastic box or out of it, and released him to the wild. akmajor (at) gmail (dot) com

About 5 minutes from my grandparents' house is a Nature Center. They have an indoor area for kids, for them to learn about different things (how eagles make their nests, what kinds of fish are local to the area, etc.). There are animals inside, as well, that have been injured and are not able to be re-released into the wild (a black squirrel, snakes, a one-eyed owl, a small hawk, turtles, a mouse, etc.). Outside are huge enclosures with a one-winged bald eagle, a fox, a skunk, and two owls. I used to go as a kid, and now all these years later, I take my kids. The bald-eagle is still there! It's really fun, and a great way for them to get up-close and personal with the animals and with local nature!

I am so looking forward to getting a bit of your great fabric in the Spoonflower swap! Yeah!

My favourite memory is when my mum would want to have a chat with her next door neighbour. Whoever wanted the chat would go outside and throw a stone on the roof of the other. That was the call to meet at the fence and chat and they would go on for hours. Now doesn't that put modern technology to shame? Getting outside - the only way to be one with nature.

My favourite nature memories tend to be images of the overwhelming scale of the world as compared to me. Lying on my back on the grass watching the huge clouds change for hours (I live on the prairies - we have big sky), driving on the highway on the prairie watching a rain storm form, rain, and finish in the distance before I got there, walking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains, driving through the interior of BC seeing so many trees that your heart sort of breaks, sitting by the ocean - knowing that it is really the world ocean and bits of it touch every shore in the world. That is a small sample.Love your fabric!

I have very many great nature memories... One is of an albino frog while caving in Pennsylvania. Another more recent is of my daughter's first hike in... mary jane shoes. She had a blast, and I was at first appalled at her footwear choice, but she had no trouble climbing up the mountain in those girly shoes!

I absolutely love this fabric Lee! I've always been a nature lover but my most fond memories are of learning about nature at Girl Scout camp. Nothing thrilled me more than to be able to identify trees and plants out in the forest. I also always longed to spot an owl at night or one of it's pellets during the day. Thanks for hosting the contest.

I LOVE the little frog on your fabric-so cute, although even cute things become not quite so cute at certain times. Like the other night at dinner when my son ran in from outside with his newest "pet" (a snail) that he promptly stuck in the middle of the table and began eating. Our new rule is no pets in the kitchen!

My favorite nature memory involves cross country skis, ponds and buffalo. I had gone to a near by national park to ski after church. since it was warm, it was getting slushy and shallow ponds were opening up. I came to the crest of a path, noticed I would have to ski between two ponds then make a sharp turn in order to avoid the buffalo that were gathered in the shelter of this clearing at the bottom of the hill. I made it, just, screaming madly as I went down the hill , jerking over slush and frozen buffalo poo going past the buffalo only to fall down just out of their sight. I'm amazed I made it that far!

Lovely pattern! I have so many great nature memories, but the one that immediately came to mind was playing on the beach in Maine when I was a kid - we loved to find starfish and mussels and seaweed, and play on the rocks and in the water. Thanks for the chance to enter!

I have a lot of unfortunate camping memories. Mostly with rain and leaking tents. No fun! I grew up in MN though so I have a lot of awesome snow memories...building forts, snowball fights, sledding (my favorite!), etc. I could NEVER leave somewhere that did not have snow in the winter. Just love it too much (not the shoveling though).

love it!! my undergrad campus was absolutely gorgeous, full of trees, grass, flowers, every kind of nature possible. i'm looking forward to returning for my wedding this weekend, and spending more time strolling and listening to the birds call

Oh, I love the fabric! I love to go puddle jumping with my son - love those deep down belly laughs when your boots fill up with water from those really big splashes. My favorite rain memory is being all snuggled up in my sleeping bag when it is pouring down rain outside. Wonderful at night, lovely during the day with a good book. Thanks for the memory. Have a great day!

My favorite memory around nature...has to be the thought of my middle son who loves to be outside rain or shine, communing with nature. Not exactly a memory. Camping as a kid in Morro Bay, CA is a good nature memory. I love the rainboots! I wish it had been in the finals!!

When I was a teenager we went to Telluride Colorado to be with my aunt who was having her 1st child. During that visit I walked up to a waterfall and I was in such awe. It was the summer and very warm and as I walked around a corner the air became much cooler and more damp and the next thing I knew a beautiful waterfall was before me. Aww the magic of nature!

The first memory that popped into my head was from my childhood. Our best friends rented a cottage and two of their kids and I went deep into the forest and built ourselves a private tent. It was enormous with tarps hanging overhead. I had never done anything like it. I hid my favorite heart shaped rock that I found in elementary school there for safe keeping. It's a very simple memory, but that was probably the most fun I had as a child. I dearly paid for it though - I ended up with poison ivy.

Great fabric!! We have regular visits from a little hedgehog family. They live somewhere in our garage and every so often we hear them snuffling around. It's so cute when we actually get to see them traipsing up and down the garden looking for food :-)

What a wonderful giveaway!My favorite memory of nature is playing in the woods behind our house - my little brother and I would play for hours, pretending that sticks, rocks, and leaves were foods for our pretend "house." Then when it got dark we'd grab jars to catch fireflies - our electricity!

We used to go camping all the time when I was little and at our favorite campground, there was this giant vine in the woods where we would swing over all these plants. Some of the best summer days ever.

My favorite nature memory is running with my cross country team in the rain. It smelled wonderful and made the run so much more exciting! Love your fabric--thanks for the chance to win. amy @ gasudimack@sbcglobal.net

Oh, I have so many nice memories of camping and such in the wilderness... so hard to choose just one. I do have a very fond memory of bathing in a river that had small waterfalls and several little pools. Very refreshing, plus beautiful background water-gushing noise, sunshine etc. That is one of my favorite memories!Thanks for the giveaway and wonderful fabric!

As a teenager I went on many canoe trips with my summer camp. We'd spend 5 days out in the middle of nowhere, singing songs at the top of our lungs, sometimes the only ones in the entire lake. On one of the trips we were goofing off and splashing the girls in the other canoe. We ended up tipping over and had to do a T-rescue. We were laughing so hard that the canoe doing the rescue ALSO tipped over. Everything we brought on the trip was soaked, but we didn't care.

Great giveaway! I love the boots! My son won't stop wearing his rainboots so he'd love this print.

Congrats on the fabric. It is adorable.My favorite memories are when my kids were younger we would sit by campfire in the evenings just listening to the crickets..so relaxing.Thank you for a chance to win.

I LOVE the rain boots! I have so many great nature memories that it is hard to pick one out but the boots definitely bring one special one to mind. I was born and raised in Northern Ontario (and do now again) but when I had my babies, I lived in British Columbia. In BC it RAINS.....A LOT, the kids don't have snow suits they have rain suits! My son was an inquisitive toddler and not really a rowdy boy but still busy and on the rainy days it was really hard to find dry things to do with him. One dau I was so frustrated by the rain but I didn't want to spread my misery to him so I had to come up with something and I ended up realizing that if you can't beat them join them! So I put him in his one piece rain suit and bright yellow rain boots and we went walking. We walked every where and our mission was to find the biggest, deepest puddles and jump into them and see who could make the biggest splash. He was tentative at first becaues he is not a really messy boy, but once he saw Mamma do it he was right in there with both feet, jumping up and down. We laughed and laughed and had the best day, (then we went home and warmed up in a bath!) He was about 15 months old at the time and now he is 12 and his sister is 10 and whenever it rains here now we all put on our rain boots and jump around in the puddles together. My husband thinks we are nuts, but it makes the rainy days easier to handle and we love having the ability to turn a grumpy mood around! Thanks for bringing back such sweet memories for me!

Thanks for the chance.. I loves the boots design fabric..Well, my story with nature?? I remembered when I was a student life, we used to have a club camping once a year in the national park in my country. Bad memories each time, because it's raining each time (Raining season). So, our camping side always flooded. So I will spend the camping time moving the belongings to a temporary dry place or rebuilding the camping side. hmm.. not a nice memory though...Sorry I have to share with you..

Love the boots I loved them the first time they are so cute. So if i dont win how can I buy some of this adorable material.My favorite nature is about 3 weeks ago when we were doing family portraits and my son and his fiance were laying in the grass for the photographer the photos were amazing when we got them back. An even more special because we got to be there when they were taken.

i love your fabric, in part because my own preschooler is obsessed with her rain boots. As for my favorite nature moment, it's really hard to choose... many years ago i canoed about 115 miles of the rio grande in the middle of nowhere texas/mexico. camping at night, the river was often the only thing you could hear. and the stars were really too amazing for words. it was the type of place that made you wonder about how this whole world came to be.

I have some VERY fond memories of my son and his rainboots! Oh, my little man LOVES his rain boots!

Last year, I was telling Colin what our day entailed. I explained to him that he needed to get dressed so we could go bye-bye. He asked his usual list of questions and I explained what he needed to gather so we could get out the door. He gets down from the table and disappears. A short time later, he reappears with a big grin on his face, a winter coat, his funky cap, his undies AND his bright green rain boots-- and out the door he ran! Yes, those were the items my 2yo chose as his clothing, and in his mind-- he was ready to go! A favorite hat, a winter coat and his BELOVED rain boots on a sunny spring day!

I have a picture of him out on the porch with those things on! My heart overflows with memories when I see that picture!!

Love this design! My sister and I have been getting very nostalgic lately. We've reminisced about our childhood when we would go up to a little town in N. WI for a week. The cabins were in a wooded area with a lake. We would swim, fish, and get sunburned. The cabin seemed to me to be like a storybook cottage. The only bad part was having to go out to the outhouse at night. We thought we might confront a bear, so we would run as fast as we could in the dark without tripping over roots!That was fun!

Wow, what a totally fabulous print! When will you be picked up by a major fabric manufacturer?? I can't wait :)

My favorite nature memory is several summers spent on an small island on Leech Lake (in Minnesota) while my father did research for his Ph.D. I loved walking down the narrow paths that crisscrossed the island, especially the field of enormous ferns that were easily taller than me.

We have some mountain land. There are several spots where I can sit with my back against a boulder and look off at Zion National Park. It is an incredibly peaceful sensation. I love the mountains, and the peace there.

When I was in high school, my family went on a trip to the Canadian Rockies. We went on several hikes that were ostensibly "easy" but in reality were anything but. One of them was a 23-mile round trip hike to a glacier. Though it was July (specifically Canada Day!) there was lots of snow on the ground, much of which had never been touched by humans. We had lots of fun playing in the snow that day (we're Florida kids so snow is a novelty!) and we were exhausted at the end of it but it was definitely a trip to remember!

My husband and I rode Gold Wing motorycles with a local motorcycle club, and when we'd go out of town for the weekends, some folks would stay at a camp and others (including us) would stay in the local hotel/motel. We always envied the closeness those campers had. So we decided to buy a camper to pull behind the motorcycle. We were soooo excited that first time we stayed with everyone in the campground. We had set up camp right next to the lake at the base of the light pole. We enjoyed the moments sitting around with folks, telling jokes, laughing, making new friends. But then...it came time to go to bed. We climbed in that camper and settled down on the blow-up mattress, talking about how lucky we were, how much fun we were having, how we were going to love camping. All of a sudden my husband said, "I feel like I'm trying to sleep inside a Holiday Inn sign." The top of the camper was green, and the light we had parked under was shining through the top, and it was bright green inside that camper. We started laughing. Then my husband says, "Don't start laughing so hard". "Why?", I said. "If we didn't anchor the supports good, and the legs collapse, this end of the camper could fall down, and we'll drop into the lake." The more we pictured that in our heads, the more we laughed. We got out of the camper and had to walk away from where everybody else was sleeping because we were laughing so hard. Several times, we'd get back in and try to go to sleep, and then we'd start laughing again. Everybody was asking us the next day what in the heck was so funny, because all they could hear was the laughing coming from our trailer. THAT was the only time we went camping with them. We sold that trailer. We just didn't feel comfortable and were always afraid it would collapse with us inside. Oh, and then that "Howard Johnson" sign thing going on. (Funny too, because our last name is Johnson.)

Love your fabric design - very sweet! A favorite nature memory is when we went on a holiday camping trip to PEI - for a month we travelled and camped out in a tent! It was the best experience for all of us!

My favorite nature memory is taking my German Shepherd on his first hike. He was just a puppy and he loved it. He sat on top of big rocks, he jumped in streams, he loved being a dog and exploring the world.

That fabric is adorable! Well done!What is it with catapillars and children? I was always amazed by the fuzzy creatures. Old timers use to tell how much snow we were going to have by how wide the colored band was...it was fun to let them crawl on our hands and arms. Don't know why one time I swelled up afterward, but that still didn't deter me. I live in the same place I did as a child and I don't see them anymore....do I need a child's eyes to find them? Possibly...:)

Very cheerful!! Love the boots and the mental picture of a little girl trying to pull one on. Spoonflower is an awesome company and thanks to Pat Sloan for the connection to your blog.I'd love to win some of this fabric in quilt weight. Thanks for the opportunity!

I have so many favorite Nature memories, it's hard to choose. I grew up on a farm and always preferred exploring "outside" to household chores. When I was about 8, I collected fallen branches and built "walls" around a tree stump in a small wooded area we referred to as "The Trees." My secret spot was a cool, shaded summer hideaway where I could read (we didn't have air conditioning).

One of my favorite nature memories is from when I lived up north in Michigan. It was a beautiful fall day, sunny and crisp. The leaves were brilliant, bright yellow, neon red, and fiery orange. Walking through the forest was like walking through a fire that didn't burn.

I love the fabric! The boots are awesome! I remember being out on the farm and wearing my rain boots out to help with chores, of course it didn't have to rain for me to wear them... LOL I even had my "go-go boots" too! What pleasant memories!

I love this print! My family always goes camping on Father's Day weekend. One year it was raining and collapsed my sister's tent. When we got to her tent we found out my sister and cousin were switching off holding the tent up all night long.

My grandparents live in East Tennessee. When we'd go to visit, Grandmother and Granddaddy would pack the car early in the morning. We'd get a couple dozen Krispy Kremes when the HOT light was on and drive up to the mountains, parking at a breakfast spot near a stream and tables. The adults would set up the camp stove, brew coffee and scramble eggs and sausage while we kids would rock hop and create free-standing stone sculptures with the smooth pebbles in the stream bed, then we'd get called together to say the blessing and eat breakfast. Afterwards, we played some more while the mothers read and the fathers talked or whittled, then we'd all pack up and go for a hike before a picnic lunch of peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches on Grandmother's homemade bread...

Love your design....I voted for it! One day I looked out my front door at dusk and a herd of deer were running through my yard. I lost count in the growing darkness around thirty-something! Incredible!

I'm so glad there are talented people like you who aren't intimidated by Spoonflower (like myself) and will just go for it when an idea strikes! My favorite nature memory is my very first nature walk with just me and my dad when I was about 5 in the oak groves by our house. Just me and him. :-)

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